Ground & Water Christmas newsletter 2018

It’s hard to believe that we are about to say farewell to 2018 and welcome a New Year in. While we are looking forward to the Christmas festivities, the folks in Westminster continue to squabble over the future of our once great nation. One thing thankfully, remains (excuse the pun) a certainty, Britain keeps on building. And now into our tenth year, Ground and Water is in a better place than ever, to provide the technical support required to ensure proposed sites, re-developments and land is safe to use and is fit for purpose.

The Ground and Water Blog

Keeping up to date with industry issues is important and in addition to information on some key developments, the blog points readers to areas where we can offer help and advice. We recently highlighted new guidance on developing small brownfield sites and hot off the press is an update on pre-planning conditions.

That sinking feeling

Recently we have been called in to carry out testing on sites affected by dissolution.

The Esher void – Ground and Water was called out to a site near Esher, after unstable shallow soils collapsed to approximately 4m below ground level. Information obtained from a desk based study indicated that the site was historically a paper works and deep made ground was noted on-site. Laminated made ground was also noted. We were required to investigate the cause of the depression. It was suspected that the shallow depression was a man-made dissolution feature within the artificial soils caused by ingress of water from a drainage feature or similar and wash out of fines.

Chalk solution features – Geotechnical and geoenvironmental ground investigation work at a site in Sonning Common, focused on investigating the potential presence of natural solution features within the chalk bedrock. We used a combination of investigation methods. These included rotary drilling boreholes, super heavy dynamic probes and a series of trial pits across the site. In addition, site works included the assessment of the chalk bedrock as a medium for storm water discharge, through the completion of soakaway tests within the trial pits in accordance with BRE365 Standards, as well falling and constant head tests within the rotary boreholes, at a depth of 15m below ground level. The local area is well known for solution features being present within the chalk bedrock, which can create severe geotechnical issues for proposed developments.

Back to school blues – We have been investigating the appearance of multiple surface depressions that appeared over the course of a few years on land owned by a school. A desk-based study of existing geological information and the site plans for the area, geophysical surveys to determine the location and size of sub-surface voids and directed intrusive investigation involving trial pits, window sampling and dynamic probing, revealed the depressions were caused by dissolution features within the underlying superficial Taplow Gravel Formation through anthropogenic sources. The features were caused by washout of fines from concentrated discharge of surface water between 2.5 and 3m below ground level. A thorough study of the existing drainage regime was conducted, revealing that a borehole soakaway had become clogged with silt and no longer functioned as designed. Working together with a drainage consultant, Ground and Water has been able to suggest a new drainage design for the site that is fit for purpose.

Client information and card payments

Our new client information portal is proving to be a hit with clients. If you haven’t used it, you can now apply for a username and can set their own password, which enables then to access your own secure area on the Ground & Water website. From here you can download your reports. You get instant access to your preliminary summaries and full reports as soon as they have been reviewed and signed off by a Chartered team member. An email notification is sent once reports are ready for download.

And please don’t forget Ground and Water clients can now settle outstanding accounts by card over the phone, by online bank transfer or pay by link.

Ground & Water is recruiting

Despite the uncertainties surrounding Brexit, Ground and Water continues to expand. We are searching for talented and motivated post graduates to join our graduate programme. We have a young and dynamic team of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental engineers, several of who started with us as graduates. If you fit the bill and would like to work with us, get in touch.

We also have technician vacancies available. These positions are open to non-graduates. A driving licence is a pre-requisite and we are looking for candidates who enjoy working outdoors, are enthusiastic, reliable and have the desire to learn. On the job training will be provided. For more information email: [email protected]

£5 millions of security

Adding to our accreditations and credentials as a business, meeting the requirements of larger developers, Ground and Water has increased its professional indemnity insurance cover to £5 million.

Giving something back

The team at Ground and Water is nothing if not caring and compassionate. The focus now and into the future is helping women, young women and girls, here and in developing countries, through the power of education and learning, promoting engineering as a profession. This is something our directors feel very strongly about and the whole company is behind this worthwhile cause. Christmas is a time for giving and we have made the following donations.

WES – Women in Engineering Society. Ground and Water director, Dipalee Jukes has become a full member of WES and the company has made a small donation. WES celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2019 and we hope to have some involvement in it next year. https://www.wes.org.uk/

Plan International – We have donated £250 to sponsor a girl in a developing world, helping ensure that more of the world’s most vulnerable children have access to clean water, education and health care. https://plan-uk.org/sponsor-a-child

Helping our community – In addition to this Ground and Water staff will be given one day’s paid leave each quarter, on top of their annual entitlement to help in our local community through charity work.

Party time!

Ground and Water went head-to-head at the Crystal Maze for this year’s Christmas Party. Both teams battled it out by using their mental and physical abilities to work their way through challenges to win the crystals, before heading to the iconic Dome for the final test. Leader Miltos took his team to victory, which won them the highly-coveted Crystal, before all heading off to the pub to continue the Christmas celebrations. A great time had by all!

And finally

We would like to thank all our clients, suppliers and other stakeholders for their continuing loyalty and support and wish everyone reading this a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

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Why us?

Ground & Water provides sound solutions for all your contaminated land and ground engineering problems. Our no-nonsense approach, experience and highly responsive team of engineers give us the resources necessary to manage projects from conception through to completion and provide investigation, analysis and design services to suit every budget.